What is Permaculture?

Brief definitions…

“Permaculture is theory of design which uses biological and ecological systems as models to create permanent and sustainable agricultural systems and communities.”

– John Kitsteiner

“Permaculture is about designing sustainable human settlements. It is a philosophy and an approach to land use which weaves together microclimate, annual and perennial plants, animals, soil, water management, and human needs into intricately connected, productive communities”

– Bill Mollison (co-creator of Permaculture)

“The word Permaculture was coined by Bill Mollison and myself in the mid-1970’s to describe an integrated, evolving system of perennial or self-perpetuating plant and animal species useful to man.

A more current definition of Permaculture, which reflects the expansion of focus implicit in Permaculture One, is ‘Consciously designed landscapes which mimic the patterns and relationships found in nature, while yielding an abundance of food, fibre and energy for provision of local needs.’ People, their buildings and the ways in which they organise themselves are central to Permaculture. Thus the Permaculture vision of permanent or sustainable agriculture has evolved to one of permanent or sustainable culture.”

– David Holmgren (co-creator of Permaculture)

In-depth definition…

Permaculture was first a portmanteau (or blending) of two words: Permanent + Agriculture.

Since its inception, it has come to also be a portmanteau of Permanent + Culture.

The basic idea, and it is indeed basic, is to create a system of agriculture that is self sufficient, requires little to no work (by humans) to maintain, improves the land, and produces a product (food, wood, fiber, animals) that humans can use. When I first heard of this concept, I pictured a Garden of Eden. I thought it was a bit too ambitious. Raising food = work, and hard work at that. But the more I read and learned, the more I realized that this ideal was very attainable.

The two main differences I can see between Permaculture and traditional agriculture (in reality there are a lot more than two) are in design and in succession.

DESIGN: Traditional agriculture involves 10% planning and 90% work. Permaculture involves 90% planning with intelligent design and 10% work to implement the design and then much less work in maintenance. An example I used in a previous post can again be used here:

Traditional way: Put all the cattle in one large field. Have another field where hay is raised with chemical fertilizers and weed killers. Harvest the hay. Bring the hay to the cattle. Give all the cattle antibiotics, growth hormones, and anti-parasitic drugs to prevent illness and push growth. At some point there is the need to go through and collect/spread the manure around the field with a machine. The end results are stressed, unhappy cattle with questionable chemicals within meat and milk, farmers who are amateur industrial chemists and struggling to make ends meet, and land that is losing fertility every year and is basically barren and void of biodiversity.

Permaculture way: Place the cattle in a much smaller field. Every few days, the cattle are moved to a new field with fresh, healthy, grasses and forbs to eat. A few days after the cattle leave the field, chickens are allowed in. The chickens scratch through the cow patties and eat the bugs and worms (negating the need to use poisons to kill the parasites that would re-infect the cattle), they spread the manure around (negating the need for people to do the work), they fertilize the fields with their own droppings (negating the work and cost and chemicals needed to fertilize), and they create their own products (eggs and meat) with minimal extra expense or work from the farmer. The end results are happy cattle with superior meat and milk products with minimal or no chemical additives, famers who make a profit due to extra product lines with minimal expenditure of time or money, and land that is gaining fertility and biodiversity. Brilliant!

SUCCESSION: This is a bit more involved, but it is the idea that nothing in agriculture is permanent. Everything is always in some sort of change or process from changing from one thing to another. A traditional farmer may say that he or she wants chickens, so she creates a large chicken run, and makes it a permanent structure on the farm. In Permaculture, we may use chickens in a temporary pen in one area that has a lot of weeds or bugs, and once it is cleared, we can move the chickens to a completely different area of the farm as needed. We can still harvest the eggs and meat as needed, but we don’t lock ourselves into any one design.

Another example would be planting fruit trees. The traditional way is to plant an orchard of fruit trees, all the same species (let’s say apple), and often the same variety (let’s say Red Delicious). To maintain this, you have to fertilize like crazy, irrigate like crazy, and spray chemicals very often to prevent the fruit from being eaten by bugs or killed by disease. In Permaculture, one apple tree is planted with one plum, and one pear, and one hazelnut, and one peach, and five gooseberries, and ten blackberries, and ten blueberries, and dozens of non-fruit plants that return nitrogen and minerals and mulch to the soil and produce flowers and nectar that attract beneficial predatory insects and birds that eat the bugs that prey on our fruit. Irrigation and chemicals and work are greatly reduced. Again… Brilliant!

This is a very brief overview of Permaculture. The fun and excitement of Permaculture is that there is always more to learn and more to discover.

Take a look at the following posts for more information on the basics of Permaculture:

Hello. I am an allotment keeper In Sheffield England. I have been an allotmenteer for the past 7 years and just beginning to understand what its all about. With our diverse weather conditions (climate change starting to kick in) I’ll be interested to hear from other members their methods of vegetable gardening. Now I’m going to have good look at your site.

Hi, I like your site. I am looking for a kind of one-liner, easy-to-grab definition which then allows to open different “drawers” depending on what’s relevant to the particular research or discussion or action of the moment. I’ve just read your blog post on using the “p” word, and the v. interesting discussion following that post, and really like the idea put forward by Chas that permaculture could be referred to as a “design science with an ethical basis”. I’m particularly interested in permaculture being first a “design science” because I get the impression that for lots of urban gardeners I meet who, like farmers, want something concrete they can implement, their idea of permaculture is resumed by “making raised beds” and then doing a bit of mulching and companion planting (goes back to what you say John about “using permaculture when it fits”). The problem I’m meeting is not so much permaculture being perceived as a series of techniques rather than as an ethic, but the problem of permaculture bieng perceived as a series of techniques (or a simple technique) which can be implemented without going through a far-reaching design process. I’ve been fooling myself somewhat that way too – though I began by doing some water management, it took me a while to get round to accepting that I couldn’t put off the need to get to grips with the basics that are needed to put the design together in my small urban garden : essentialy, understanding indicator plants and doing some A-frame mini contours (in a small garden some thing are simpler : you don’t have 5 or 6 zones, and you have a lot of constraints). Only then can I do my micro swales (or whatever it will be to resolve my remaining water management issues) and understand how to help the soil here heal itself – not just where I want to grow food but everywhere.

We build some outside turnout sheds and used black locust instead of pressure treated lumber. Now my state of NJ, the garden state…..is requiring information on the wood to prove it is better than pressure treated. Can you sent me good helpful info that i can print out to give them. I appreciate it greatly. Janet Mowder